


The Self-Appointed Resident Alarm Clock

by rhythmofthecrowd



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Singing, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-03-21 21:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3705519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhythmofthecrowd/pseuds/rhythmofthecrowd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pete likes singing. So does his neighbour, who happens to be good at it. And let's just say the apartment walls between them are very thin....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The thundering sound of the alarm shook Pete from his soundless slumber. Not wanting to move, he glared at the flashing clock face, willing as hard as he could that it would stop howling. When the irritating noise didn't cease, Pete pulled his arm from beneath the warmth of the sheets and slammed the cool plastic halfheartedly, his hand hitting it with a sharp bang. The droning stopped immediately, and Pete let his hand fall off the bedside table to lay beside the bed, a groan escaping his lips as he gazed out the window, where the early morning sun started to edge it's way across the sky.  
_"Well, it could be worse,_ " Pete whispered to himself. " _A meteorite could hit the earth and stop me from having to actually go to work._ " He snorted and threw back the blankets before stretching and gathering his things for a shower. Absentmindedly whistling the Friends theme song, he headed out into the hallway, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, with his towel trailing behind him.

Closing and locking the bathroom door, Pete turned to face his reflection in the mirror, quickly looking away as his hand ran through his messy hair, avoiding the figure facing him. The reflection looked so much like him, but the dark purple splotches covering his torso would never become a part of him. He wouldn't let it.  
Pete undressed and jumped into the shower quickly to avoid looking at this foreign creature commanding his attention in the mirror, and tried to let his troubles fall away.

The water massaged his aching shoulder muscles, tired with fatigue as the heat started to burn a glowing red stain across his pale skin. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, letting the tension, an intangible heaviness, flow down the drain with the water before his eyes were involuntarily ripped open as the water, surprisingly quickly, turned an icy cold. With a yelp, he jumped out of the waters stream.

Must be next door he sighed, putting his hand gingerly under the water, waiting for his neighbour to turn off the tap he was running, stealing his hot water along with it.  
A minute passed, until he realised that the water was not warming up again. _"Must be having a shower,"_ Pete rolled his eyes _"Impeccable timing."_ Just as he was about to give the wall a couple of high fives to let his friendly neighbour know that it was his time for a shower, a soft male voice rose from their bathroom, adjacent to Pete's, and diffused through the thin wall between them.  
"...Grew up in a town that is famous as the place of movie scenes...." Pete stopped for a second, hand inches from the wall.  
"Noise is always loud, there are sirens all around and the streets are mean..." There was no mistaking - his "friendly-neighbour" was singing! _"Does he realise it's before 7 on a Saturday morning?"_ Pete thought, trying hard to be mad at the self-appointed resident alarm clock. But instead of being mad, Pete let the smile gnawing at his lips to grow, as he heard the melody - not sung half bad - continue above the roar of the water.  
"If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere that's what they say" The cold water forgotten, Pete decided to join in with the floating voice, unsure if he was being genuine or just wanted to poke fun at his choice of morning rush. "See my face in lights, or my name on marquees found down on Broadway" Pete sang as loud and as off-key as he could - if the whole apartment was going to be woken up, may as well make it memorable.

A few seconds passed without another word coming from the wall. Pete, disappointed, turned off his still cold shower, hopped out and started to dry himself with the towel. Then a noise arose from his neighbours bathroom. Anticipating the next line in the song, Pete was surprised when he heard a... whimper? Edging closer to the walls, now damp with condensation, Pete listened for any other sound. A sob soon shot it's way through the paper walls, and kept going, seemingly puncturing Pete's heart. Pete's face fell as his fingers tightened around the towel, heart thumping wildly as he realised that the sob was his own doing. "Hey..." Pete said tentatively, unsure if his acquaintance could hear him. He cleared his throat. "Um, I'm really sorry, I wasn't trying to upset you..." His only reply was a sniff. Pete sighed and decided the best thing to do was to just get out of the bathroom, the small space quickly growing tighter and tighter around him.


	2. Chapter 2

There was nothing for the next few days. No freezing cold showers, and much to Pete’s dismay, no singing. He felt bad about what he did, but there wasn’t much he could do apart from knocking on his neighbours door and apologising face to face. Which was not going to happen. Ever.

On Tuesday morning, he woke up to the sound of thunder clanging outside his window. Groaning, Pete shuffled further into his bed, pulling the blankets over his head. If he couldn’t see the world, then maybe he could stop time for a few minutes. Or a couple more hours. Pete was clearly not a morning person.

Eventually his alarm started doing it’s usual wail and Pete was forced out of his blanket fort, and into the sharp coldness of the room. Making his way to the bathroom, he switched on the radio on his phone - if he wasn’t going to have a person as a singing parter, at least he could sing along with the superstars. A familiar tune reached his ears as he started the shower. “Well, you dawned on me and you bet I felt it, I tried to beat you but you’re so hot that I melted…”. Humming along, Pete washed his hair, swearing as the shampoo got into his eyes. “Arghhh” he yelped, quickly washing it out of his eyes. A small voice rose again above the splashing of the shower, one that was not his, distracting him from the stinging in his eye. “But I won’t hesitate no more, no more it cannot wait, I’m yours…..” Pete frowned in confusion for a second, and cleared the suds out of his ear. He listened again. The voice was definitely real, and coming from next door. _“But they’re not taking a shower?”_ Pete thought, feeling the hot water still burning on his back. _“Did he come in to his bathroom just to sing with me? Is this his way of accepting my apology? Is he just winding me up? This is so cheesy - c’mon dude this isn’t an episode of glee where we sing our feelings to each other.”_ Pete snorted then clapped a hand over his face, remembering that he was trying to be nice and not a total dick.

Pete was unsure whether the resident alarm clock next door heard or not, but either way, the voice continued through the wall. “Well open up your mind, and see like me” Pete joined in hesitantly, actually trying to sing properly and not off key like last time. “Open up your plans and damn you’re free, look into you’re heart and you’ll find love, love, love, love.” _“Hey, we actually sound pretty good together”_ Pete thought, letting optimism be annoyingly present in his mind. “Haha, yeah I think so too” came the voice from the wall, freezing Pete where he was. So he had said that out loud. And he had heard it too. With a squeak, he turned the water off and grabbed his towel. Still dripping wet, he raced out of the bathroom and into his bedroom, cheeks red with embarrassment and wanting nothing more than to crawl under the blankets to never see the light of day again.

 

~~

 

However life goes on, no matter how embarrassing you are at interacting with people. Later that evening, Pete returned from work as an a sound studio director to the ever worsening storm. He quickly checked his mailbox, trying to avoid the giant raindrops that were all seemingly aimed at him. Pete then fished his key out of his linty pocket, dropping his mail into a puddle in the process. Picking up the now ironically wet water bill, he swung the door to the apartment foyer inwards, and promptly smacked someone in the face. The image of someone’s pained face squished up against a glass door pane is not something easily erased from the mind, and so Pete thought he did a very good job at containing his laughter. “Owww” the other person cried, his hand immediately covering his nose. “I’m so sorry!” Pete exclaimed, just as another clap of thunder boomed above the building. The other person took a sharp intake of breath. “Are you okay? Do you want me to call someone?”

“No, it’s okay, my nose isn’t in too much pain… uhh... the thunder is a bit… spooky?” they reply unconvincingly. “Uh ok, well if you’re okay I’m going to go and try dry of my mail before it gets anymore ruined. I’m Pete by the way.” Pete replies, going in for a handshake but dropping his mail on the floor of the apartment building’s shabby foyer. “Patrick” The blond replies. They stay standing still for a few seconds, just staring, until Pete finally jolts back to reality and bends over to pick up his mail. “Right, I’ll be going then. Sorry about your face. Good luck out there in the… spooky… thunder.”

“Okay. Hey, thanks Pete.” If it wasn’t for the genuine smile on Patricks face, Pete would have thought he was being sarcastic. But his earnest eyes seemed to make Pete feel better about unintentionally hurting someone. Patrick moved around him, opened his umbrella and left the building to brave the cold outside. Pete let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in and started moving towards he stairs, shaking his head with a smile. Before he reached the stairs however, a bright yellow handwritten note that was pinned hastily to the building’s notice board caught his eye.

 

_**“Whoever wakes up and starts “singing” at 7am almost every morning needs their own wake up call - YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE IN THE BUILDING!!!”** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I'm Emma :)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the story so far, thank you for reading :) Sorry I haven't updated in a while, life is pretty busy at the moment, but i've realised that this is a very good way of procrastinating ;)


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